BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.20, No.1, 2025, BECE 1977 

 

 

 

 

Teacher Criticism and Behavioral Improvement In-

tention of Secondary School Students: The Effect of 

the Closeness of Teacher-Student Relationships 

By Cheng, Y., Yan, L., & Zhang, F. 
Correspondence to: Feng Zhang, Ningbo University, China. E-mail: 

zhangfeng@nbu.edu.cn   

HIS article examines the effects of the type of teacher criticism on be-

havioral improvement intention in junior and senior secondary students 

and the teacher-student relationship, as well as the effect of teacher-student 

closeness on the relationship between teacher criticism and student behavior-

al improvement intention.. 

Research Findings: 

 Person criticism from the teacher has a negative effect on 

student perception of the closeness of teacher-student rela-

tionships in both junior and senior secondary school stu-

dents and weakens their intention to improve their behavior. 

The closeness of the teacher-student relationship fully me-

diates the relation between person criticism and student be-

havioral improvement intention. This type of teacher criti-

cism represents a negation of the student’s overall worth, 

conveying the feeling of aversion, which can easily trigger 

senses of unfairness and often culminates in emotional reac-

tion and behavioral resistance from the student. Furthermore, 

person criticism can lead to the formation of negative self-

concept in students. When receiving person criticism, the 

student tends to attribute their error to their deficits in com-

petence, feeling helplessness. Long-term exposure to person 

criticism reinforces the student’s self-negation, prompting 

their deliberate avoidance of growth opportunities. This 

finding suggests that person criticism is an inappropriate 

approach to correcting student behavior.  

 Process criticism from the teacher can heighten the percep-

tion of teacher-student closeness in senior secondary stu-

dents but weaken that in junior secondary students. The 

closeness of the teacher-student relationship also fully me-

diates the relationship between process criticism and student 

behavioral improvement intention. However, process criti-

T 

mailto:zhangfeng@nbu.edu.cn


 

Vol.20, No.1, 2025, BECE 1978 

cism can strengthen senior secondary students’ behavioral 

improvement intention by increasing their perception of 

teacher-student closeness, whereas it can undermine junior 

secondary students’ behavioral improvement intention by 

diminishing their perception of teacher-student closeness. 

This may be because senior secondary students, who are in 

late adolescence, can distinguish between process and per-

son criticism and comprehend goodwill behind the teacher’s 

criticism, thus able to transform criticism into motivation 

for improvement. Contrarily, junior secondary students, due 

to their less mature mental development, tend to interpret 

every type of criticism as absolute negation, and thus devel-

op resistance to the teacher’s instruction and alienation from 

the teacher. This finding implies that junior secondary 

teachers may face more challenges in correcting student be-

havior than their senior secondary counterparts. 

 

 

 

Source: Psychological Development and Education, 2025; 41(01), 42-51.